My first three days in the MTC

Mom: When Tyler was packing, Carson Telford came over to teach Tyler the "proper way" to shine his shoes. You will understand why this is important when you read Tylers letter home...

Hi Everyone!


Even though it's not P-day, our Branch Presidency wanted us to write a letter home. I have P-day on Wednesday which is when I'll write home.

On the flight over here, I sat by a Sister Missionary from Tonga. She had been serving in Denver and was being transferred to Temple Square. This was the first time I introduced myself as Elder Perkins. It's been hard for me to call everyone Elders and Sisters and not "guys."

When I arrived I met my district and companion. His name is Elder McCarty. He's a great guy and we are working hard to motivate each other and do the work. We have 10 members of our district, 6 Elders and 4 Sisters. Elder McCarty and I, as well as 3 of the Sisters will be going to the Arizona Phoenix Mission. The other 5 will be in the California Carlsbad Mission. We have all gotten to know each other now and we all get along very well.

The first day here, we had a couple of classes. We have 2 permanent teachers (one in the morning and one in the evening) to teach our district. We are in a room with only our district for classes. We also have large group meetings occasionally with about 20 zones. Our zone has 3 districs.

Here is an example of a normal day for us...
6:30-7:00am Arise and Prepare
7:00-7:30am Breakfast
7:30- 8:10am Personal/Companion Studay (we get to choose in planning session)
8:10-11:30am Class with Sister Hariss
11:30-12:15pm Lunch
12:15-1:00pm Study (Personal/Companion)
1:00-4:30pm Class with Brother Lovejoy (cool name!)
4:30-5:15pm Dinner
5:15-6:15pm Personal Study
6:15-7:15pm Companion Study
7:15-7:45pm Daily planning for next day
7:45-8:10pm Study (Personal/Companion)
8:10-9:00pm Gym
9:00-9:30pm Study (Personal/Companion)
9:30-10:30pm Reflect, Prayer,Study, Lights Out

In our classes we learn about teaching skills, practice teaching, Preach My Gospel (a ton!), and scriptures. We will be going to practice teaching where people come in to volunteer as investigators and we can answer phone calls when people see our commercials. We get a lot of study time!!

Elder McCarty and I memorized "Our Purpose" and Joseph Smiths account of The First Vision like on Thursday. We just have a lot of classes and I'm learning so much.

On Thursday night I was also called to be the District Leader of our district. Somethings I've already had to do include: conduct all classes, authorize companionship exchanges, teach our District Lessons (on Sundays), interview the Senior Companions, conduct some of the planning sessions, read each members weekly report and write a district report, gone to a couple of Branch and training meetings and more.

Just when I began thinking how little time I have here and how much I have to do, I get this fantastic calling. It's tough but I love it! Our district goals for this coming week are:
1.) Teach often.
2.) Smile always.
3.) Be on Time!

I taught a 30 minute lesson on the Atonement today which went well. You can always tell when you have the Spirit here. It's so powerful and its been the most I've felt His presence.

The first day I got a "word" from a counselor from our District Presidency because my shoes were not shined to his expectations. HA! We have a lot of rules like no pink ties, no gum, no handshaking (flu season), and many more in the white handbook.

Each sacrament meeting with our zone (about 30 people) we have 2 Elders speak and a member of the Branch Presidency. The catch is, all Elders in the zone have to prepare a 5 minute lesson and during the meeting they pick 2 Elders/Sisters to speak.

Funny Story! I had to teach my teacher a lesson for practice, I was very excited when I began. After talking for a bit he said, "It's been tough ever since my daughter died." (or something along those lines) I replied, "That's great! because our Father in Heaven..." and I went on. The class was laughing and I wasn't sure why. Afterwards, he said, "You can't say 'It's great that your daughter died!'" I gotta watch what I say more. Haha!

Our district is way cool. I'm having such a fun time here. I hope all is well.

Missionary Work Rocks!

Elder Perkins